On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Alabama’s 5th District, Mo Brooks, the U.S. House Representative from Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. Brooks, a Tea Party Wave beneficiary, has already demonstrated that he doesn’t understand how the debt ceiling works and channels the sort of bigotry worthy of the legacy of George Wallace, having stated he is willing to “do anything short of shooting” illegal immigrants to solve the problem, and characterizing Democratic policies as part of a “War on Whites”.
Brooks is one of the most xenophobic opponents of immigration, and on more than one occasion has stated his belief that immigration reform was a plot by Democrats to “dilute the voting power of Americans”, and has called for the impeachment of President Obama for his executive orders on immigration. He also has claimed Democrats use “class warfare”, ”racial division“, and ”sexual exploitation“ to help them get votes, which is quite the shift in the actual paradigm in this country.
On July 8th, 2015, Mo Brooks was on Yellowhammer Radio, and stated his belief that illegal immigrants have murdered more Americans than the six to seven thousand Americans who have died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq so far this century (Hint: That’s insane, and xenophobic, but that’s Mo Brooks for you). Brooks, in an interview not long after the worst mass shooting in U.S. History at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, weighed in by claiming that “the Muslim community, which, if it had its way, would kill every homosexual in the United States of America.” Because there’s no better way to respond to a tragedy by trying to stir up fears against foreigners, right?
With 385 days to go until the 2016 election, Mo Brooks already was talking about impeaching Hillary Clinton for having a private e-mail server while serving as Secretary of State. A month later, Rep. Brooks, during a Congressional hearing, suggested the United States should arm Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, in the hopes that it would lead the Russians out of Syria. There was agreement from both hawk and dove alike on Capitol Hill that this was a moronic suggestion, and it was nice to see both sides agree that Mo Brooks has terrible ideas.
Much like how in April of 2018, that Rep. Brooks was calling for the National Guard to not just be deployed to the U.S./Mexico border, but they be allowed to use “whatever force necessary” to hunt for border-crossers. Many of whom, of course, are women with children fleeing violence and seeking amnesty, but hey, let’s just give the Guardsmen the green light to gun them down, y’know?
After winning re-election in 2016 with 67% of the vote in a safe conservative district, Mo Brooks was trying to jump from the U.S. House, and supplant Sen. Luther Strange, the man appointed to replace Jeff Sessions by shamed (now former) Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. In July of 2017, Brooks promised that if elected to the U.S. Senate, he would use his position to filibuster by reading the King James Bible until Donald Trump’s proposed border wall (that experts note wouldn’t work) is funded, and then released an ad to promote his bid to get elected to the U.S. Senate that features audio of the attempted assassination of Congressman Steve Scalise (he was there at the time). Both parties criticized him for trying to exploit the shooting, because obviously. Well, against some of the most conservative lunatics Alabama had to offer, Mo Brooks failed to advance out of the GOP Primary, finishing third behind Luther Strange. Of course, Roy Moore finished first so… it’s hard to like anyone involved in that saga. That’s kind of like dodging a bullet to jump into the path of a different bullet.
Anyway, perhaps the biggest moment of utter stupidity from Mo Brooks of late came in May of 2018, when he tried a new strategy for denying climate change as a member of the House Science Committee. When faced with statistics about rising sea levels… you see, Brooks explained the sea levels were only rising because “rocks were falling into the ocean”. If that wasn’t insane enough, Brooks then went on to claim that the Antarctic ice sheet, which is melting rapidly, was somehow GROWING.
“What about the White Cliffs of Dover … and California, where you have the waves crashing against the shorelines, and time and time again you have the cliffs crashing into the sea? All of that displaces water which forces it to rise, does it not?
There are plenty of studies that have come that show with respect to Antarctica that the total ice sheet, particularly that above land, is increasing, not decreasing. Now, you could make a different argument if you want to talk about Greenland or the Arctic.”
In 2020, Mo Brooks was one of three Republicans across the country running for a House seat unopposed. Let’s just review his past few years in office to illustrate why we’re glad he already has primary challengers in 2022. (HINT: Sedition to follow.)
- March 25th, 2019: Brooks takes to the floor of the House, where he decides it’s a great time to QUOTE HITLER. Yes, that’s right, he complained about investigations into President Trump by Robert Mueller, called Democrats “socialists”, and then compared the Mueller investigation to the “Big Lie” that Hitler talked about in Mein Kampf.
- July 12th, 2019: Brooks is one of 12 Republicans who vote against the re-authorization of the Zadroga Act to provide healthcare to 9/11 First Responders.
- October 23rd, 2019: Brooks is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”.
- December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Brooks is one of 71 Republicans who votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
- December 18th, 2019: Brooks ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
- May 15th, 2020: Brooks votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- December 10th, 2020: Brooks signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
- January 6th, 2021: Mo Brooks speaks at the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., and tells the mob to “start taking down names and kick some ass”, prior to them marching to the Capitol as Donald Trump told them to.
- January 6th, 2021: In the late hours of January 6th, as the mob was dispersed, Brooks gets on Twitter to claim there is “evidence that fascist ANTIFA infiltrated Trump rally and stormed the Capitol.” Brooks never presented any of this evidence, because it doesn’t exist, and also, it would be obvious because “fascist Antifa” would be “fascist Anti-fascists”, which is about counterproductive as any group could be in name or deed.
- January 7th, 2021: Rep. Brooks votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
- January 11th, 2021: Mo Brooks laments that the domestic terrorists he encouraged to “kick some ass” actually “destroyed two months of debate and work”, but swore he would “never apologize” for his remarks that day.January 13th, 2021: Rep. Brooks votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers
- .February 4th, 2021: Mo Brooks votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
- February 25th, 2021: Brooks votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Brooks votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: Mo Brooks votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 5th, 2021: Rep. Brooks is sued in court by Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell for his role in inciting the Capitol riot on January 6th.
- March 10th, 2021: Brooks votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Brooks votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 19th, 2021: Mo Brooks votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
- June 6th, 2021: After weeks of dodging process servers attempting to serve him with notice regarding Rep. Eric Swalwell’s lawsuit, Mo Brooks’ wife is successfully served at their home in Alabama. Mr. Brooks goes ballistic in impotent rage.
- June 7th, 2021: Flailing about a day after being served in the lawsuit, Rep. Brooks accidentally shares his private e-mail password because it was on a note on his computer screen in a photo took because he’s too much of an incompetent twit to know how to do a screen capture.
- June 16th, 2021: Mo Brooks is one of 14 Republicans who vote against celebrating Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
- July 6th, 2021: Mo Brooks attempts to have Eric Swalwell’s lawsuit dismissed by using the defense that his remarks were actually part of his duties as a Congressman because he was asked to speak at the “Stop the Steal” rally by the Trump White House. This only however, revealed that the Trump White House knew about his remarks, and approved them ahead of the event, and they were not spontaneous.
- July 9th, 2021: Brooks learns absolutely f***ing nothing from January 6th and goes to CPAC to give a speech where he pleaded with modern conservatives to emulate soldiers in the American Revolution who “fought at Valley Forge,” the site of one of the Continental Army’s winter encampments, adding, “that’s the kind of sacrifice we have to think about.”
- July 22nd, 2021: Rep. Brooks is one of 16 Republicans who vote against HR 3895, the Allies Act, which was passed without his support to raise the amount of visas offered and to expedite their issue to Afghan translators and their families to honor our promise to protect them against the Taliban after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, thus feeling we should go back on our word and leave them to die.
- July 28th, 2021: Brooks’ request to have the Department of Justice defend him in his lawsuit against Eric Swalwell is rejected.
- July 29th, 2021: Mo Brooks’ arguments that he had no idea his speech on January 6th might promote violence are hindered by the reveal that he was wearing body armor under his jacket on January 6th.
- August 19th, 2021: On this date, a Trump supporter named Floyd Ray Rosenberry parked a truck outside of the Library of Congress and threatened to detonate a bomb if Joe Biden didn’t resign and if Donald Trump wasn’t re-installed in office against any and all Constitutional procedure. Rep. Brooks weighed in on Twitter, and put out a statement that seemed to sympathize with the domestic terrorist while pretending to not know what his motivations were:
We would like to think that all the sedition, spewing of conspiracy theories, and repeated defenses of Trump supporters committing domestic terrorism are going to be enough to at least see Mo Brooks ousted from office in the 2022 mid-terms, and we hope he continues to blunder about in court as the lawsuit filed by Eric Swalwell continues to show what a white nationalist goon he is. But undoubtedly, Congress will be better off without him, whenever he’s gone.